During the summer of 2021, Ku-ring-gai Council’s Library Up Late events were held to engage the community and promote later opening hours. Events were held between 5pm and 9pm on Thursday evenings at the Gordon branch library.
The Library Up Late program also demonstrated librarians resilience and ability to pivot, as they had a Covid-19 outbreak and a raging storm to contend with.
Before the Omicron wave hit Sydney, the library managed to host a trivia quiz night, a class on how to do cryptic crosswords, a Christmas celebration with a Korean choir from the Dae Hahn Cultural School and a meditation workshop.
Once the Omicron outbreak took hold author talks moved online, as was the case for many other NSW libraries. But this offered the opportunity for a shy journalism student to share questions for the New York Times Australian Bureau Chief Damien Cave on the state of Australian journalism – as well as their notes on his book. It also allowed us to reach 1600 people through a live Q&A on Facebook with TV personality and gardening guru Costa Georgiadis.
With the Omicron outbreak under control in person events had just returned to the library with a honey harvest and beehive building demonstration, when a storm hit. Luckily the honey was harvested in time for people to pick up their chairs and walk inside to one of our meeting rooms for the building demonstration while the wind whipped and rain raged outside. Library Up Late concluded at the end of February with a talk from Ku-ring-gai’s local history librarian whose fascinating stories showed just how relevant Ku-ring-gai’s history is to its current community identity.
With more programs forthcoming, they know things are unlikely to go as planned… but they hope they’ve perfected the art of enjoying the contingency!
